MEDIA ADVISORY

ATTENTION: ASSIGNMENT DESKS

05/03/00
Contact: Kathleen Scalise
[email protected]
(510) 643-7741


WHAT: A landmark series of earthquake experiments that, for the first time, will simulate the shaking of a bridge deck in all directions - up and down as well as sideways - during a major earthquake. The shake will be done by the nation's largest earthquake simulator, which is located at the University of California, Berkeley.   WHEN: Thursday, May 4, 11:30 a.m.-12 noon.   WHERE: The University of California, Berkeley's Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, 1301 South 46th St., Building 420, Richmond.   WHO: Speakers will be Stephen Mahin, UC Berkeley civil engineering professor, and James Roberts, Caltrans chief deputy and chief bridge engineer.  

VISUALS: A 20-foot-long bridge model supported eight feet off the ground on steel columns will be loaded with 94,000 pounds of concrete and subjected to heavy shaking exceeding that of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Steel supports are capped with "friction pendulum sliding bearings" intended to protect the bridge from damage. This seismic protection system, invented by UC Berkeley alumnus Victor Zayas, has been used in the new Benicia-Martinez bridge, at San Francisco International Airport and in other recent construction in California.

NOTE: For further information about the event, contact the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at (510) 231-9401, Stephen Mahin at (510) 642-4021 and, at the California Department of Transportation, Jim Drago, (916) 654-4677, or Angela Blanchette, (510) 286-7397. The demonstration is not open to the public, but reporters are welcome.

 






UC Berkeley



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